One of the funniest things I like to follow on the Weird Wide Web is the proliferation of dating websites. It’s kind of funny, for I have been keeping a tally of the most esoteric sites imagined over the last few years. Like a gal that is really into Star Trek? There is a site for you! Are you only attracted to Arabs? There is a site for you! Are you a lonely farmer looking for that special someone to fertilize the field with? There is a site for you! Do you like wasting a week in the hot Nevada sun while smoking weird drugs just to see a stick figure man be burned? We got a site for you! I’m pretty sure the next wave of esoteric sites will be devoted to people that like pre-teen books like Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, people that dress their little chihuahuas (hmmm, I might join that site), Cosplay aficionados, Beer Drinking snobs and

"GOTHLETES." FASHION OR FITNESS TREND? WE'LL LET THE INTERNET DECIDE

YUP, KIND OF EXPLAINS MY LIFE RIGHT NOW! HEHE

maybe classic video game devotes. I mean, we already have websites for fitness types, hunters and yes, even vegans! (well, technically, vegetarians). I’ll admit, in some of my gloomier days, I opted to try some of the bigger sites, but if anything, these sites just helped me glide farther and faster into depression. It reaffirmed my belief that as a huge, overweight, out of shape person, I was ugly and therefore not attractive and therefore deserved to be alone. So what I’m basically saying is I never even got a wink! I laugh now at the sadness those stupid sites brought about, because the outright lies they preach on television is so amazing to me, I wish the FAA would put a halt to the soothsaying “truths”they croak out on a regular basis. If anything, the truth about the online dating world kind of startled me, and it brought about a philosophy on life that I have tried to instill into my everyday comings and goings. Nothing is real until you have it in your hand or is face to face with you.

It’s a weird concept to want something in your presence, for I am not much into this digital revolution that is overwhelming our society. I still like books, and recently, I kind of wish I could get back into collecting old Choose Your Own Adventure books for the heck of it. With the recent death of R.A. Montgomery, the guy that helped start the series and put his good name and money on the line for a concept few wrapped their head around at first, I actually looked at some of the old books I keep in my room (and realized I need to dust them more often, for the dust made me sneezy for a couple days). I also like having physical copies of just about all the music I buy. Yeah, I have a lot of downloaded stuff, but that might account for 10-15% of my total music catalog (and I got some 15,000 songs on my computer). I find it weird when people only by their products digitally or subscribe to some phone application to listen to music they could easily buy and enjoy all the time as much as they like. I like that semi-sense of ownership on the product I have, because if I can’t touch or feel it, it is invisible and expendable and easy to exploit. If you have nothing in your hand, do you still own it? It’s the same reason why I feel so disconnected with money due to the digital nature of it. It’s the same reason why I feel kind of sad in regards to the current movie industry, where all “film”is now downloaded or delivered on high quality DVDs. I remember the days of working at the old Century Park 16, getting the nasty emulsion on my hands after cleaning the prints or having to deal with the greasing compound we would occasionally put on the prints to keep from having too much emulsion (by the way, emulsion is basically a fancy way of saying the print was falling apart, one tiny particle at a time). It gave me a better appreciation for the film arts and while films can look prettier than ever due to the digital color timing and the advancement of “film washing”technologies, the best experience I had recently at the movies was seeing “Magnolia”in its original 35mm glory, which I never got to experience in the movie theaters until this past November.

Anyway, I say all of this due to the research I need to do for this blog. Often, there is a lot of stuff on the web that makes it easy to turn into a subject for a blog post, but now I’m starting to hit some weird articles, like the “Top Workout Trends for 2015”and “How To Burn off Those Holiday Calories”even though the holidays are technically still going on. How do you know what is going to be a trend for the next year? While it may be fun and might actually produce some results, all this really sounds like to me is a bunch of people trying to establish some kind of trend so then they can create a class for it and then charge a whole lot of money for it because it is new and “trendy.”I guess this is the anti-societal person coming out of me, for I feel a great deal of derision toward those that are trying their hardest to stretch the limits of fitness. For example, I saw some new trend that is trying its hardest to take off called Anti-Gravity Training. http://www.stylebistro.com/Health+Diet+Fitness/articles/Bp9NCqlOGrs/Workout+Trend+Try+Anti+Gravity+Fitness It is literally what it sounds like, for you get to hang yourself from some cloth hanging in the ceiling while engaging in various movements akin to yoga and pilates. Of course, the end of the article says “find a class near you!”Judging by the advertisement (let’s just call it for what it is) this sort of trend makes fitness sound easy and fun, never mind the warnings giving in regards to the clothing you may wear so you don’t slip and crack your head (better get the release forms fired up!). Now for all intents and purposes, this thing might actually work. But it kind of bothers me, merely for the fact it looks like some kind of fitness diet pill. If anything, shouldn’t simplicity be a key factor in starting your workout regimen?

I love simplicity. Lift weights, eat better than what you were eating before and do some cardiovascular stuff on the side, like running or Zumba or basketball or whatever. Build your body up before you start taking into the trends. I know, in our image obsessed society, we not only want to be healthy looking, but we have to look cool at the same time (which is why I’m still perplexed by Lululemon being so expensive….can’t you just get those yoga pants for like 20 bucks at Target or something?). But I love the simplicity of what I am doing, even if it is archaic. But I shouldn’t be so judgmental, because if anything, fitness is fitness and we all have to start somewhere. I was watching a cool documentary called “The Greatest That Never Was”about a high school football player named Marcus Dupree. His first weight set was a broom stick with clay bricks on the side. He only stopped lifting because the broom handle broke under the weight of too many bricks, which probably meant it was time to start using a bar. Heck, this sentiment of mine was recently studied by my alma mater’s drunken sibling to he north, Arizona St. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/12/exercising-but-gaining-weight/?_r=0 While I have recently become a little more obsessed with trying to lose some weight and become a little more aesthetic, researchers at ASU concluded that tangible numbers shouldn’t be the only measuring stick involved in a healthy body. During the curse of the study, which followed a group of overweight women, the general conclusion about losing weight wasn’t necessarily about the lost pounds. It was about the desire to keep going forward, the desire to make a change that differentiates oneself from the masses.

I guess I shouldn’t be so judgment toward the weirder side of the fitness industry. I still love the lack of complexity of my workouts, for they always seem to center on the brute strength and desire of wanting to change. This past Friday was the first time in two weeks I did some dumbbell exercises without the 50-pound weights. Of course, it was still pretty difficult, for I had to do 100 chest presses with 35-pound weights in under 10 minutes. I blew through the exercise in seven and a half, meaning I was going to have to use 40-pounders the next time. On the other hand, the last time I did that many chest presses that fast, I was probably using 25-pound dumbbells. It’s all about improvement at this point for me, and while I did slack a little this week in regards to my running, I have dumped nearly 14,000 calories the last couple weeks in an effort to get better and faster in the gym. And on the other hand, I could still do a little running this week considering I have some time on Sunday (provided the weather is not ridiculously crazy).

I guess this is a pretty good peek into my inner wiring. I need those moments where I see I am doing better and improving. I need to see that I ran six miles and averaged 10-minutes per mile like I did this past Thursday. While I am certainly trying to lose weight and look more like a man of fitness, those tangible realities of seeing what I can do now and comparing to what I used to do is helping me stay on the right track. While I kind of distance myself from trends, there are some pretty good ones starting in the fitness world, like Nerd Fitness or Health Goth (while it seems cool, this is still listed under Style and Fashion rather than Health and Fitness). http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/fashion/health-goth-when-darkness-and-gym-rats-meet.html On the other hand, I should just be thankful some people are getting a clue and taking the first steps of fixing their health. Personally, you shouldn’t wait for something to be tailor made for you, but I guess that is part of the song and dance. Maybe I will see some of them some day in the gym. Until then, I’m just gonna wait until the dating sight called “Vegans that are Pretentious Movie and Beer Snobs and into Fitness”Dating starts up. hehe

About Parsons TrainingParsons Training is a Tucson leader in fitness and personal wellness training. Every personal trainer with this company designs and implements effective fitness programs for their clients; these programs serve as the foundation for good health, fitness, and wellness. Additional information about Parsons Training is available at http://www.parsonspersonaltraining.com

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Steve, a Parsons Training Client, went from 400 pounds to Running half-marathons, from lifting pizzas to lifting hundreds of pounds through training with us.

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